Walter Kennedy
and pleuch..." Walter Kennedy (against William Dunbar) in The Flyting, l.366]] Walter Kennedy (?1460 - 1508?) was a Scottish poet or makar,Walter Kennedy, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Web, Feb. 2, 2018. associated with the renaissance court of James IV. His surviving works clearly show him to have been an accomplished master in many genres.Meier, Nicole, ed. The Poems of Walter Kennedy, Scottish Text Society, 2008, p.ix. Life Overview Kennedy, a son of Lord Kennedy, was educated at Glasgow, and is perhaps best known as Dunbar's antagonist in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy. The Flyting, in which the 2 poets alternate in heaping outrageous abuse on one another, is the outstanding example of this favorite sport of the 16th-century Scots poets. Other of Kennedy's poems are Praise of Aige (Age), Ane Ballat in Praise of Our Lady, and The Passion of Christ. Most of his work is probably lost.John William Cousin, "Kennedy, Walter," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 221. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 1, 2018. Youth, family, education Kennedy was the 3rd son of Gilbert, 1st lord Kennedy. His grandmother was Mary, a daughter of Robert III; and his uncle James Kennedy, bishop of St. Andrews, was one of the regents during the minority of James III, and the principal adviser of that king till his death in 1466. His niece, Janet, was one of the mistresses of James IV, who created her Lady Bothwell, and granted her the castle and forest of Darnaway for life.Mackay, 435. The family to which the poet belonged was by these royal connec-tions and the great estates it held in the west of Scotland, especially in Carrick, 1 of the most important of the minor noble houses of Scotland.Mackay, 436. Walter was educated at the college of Glasgow, where he matriculated in 1475, along with James Black, described as ‘famulus’ or tutor ‘nobilis viri Walteri Kennedy.’ He graduated as bachelor or determinant in 1476, and licentiate and M.A. in 1478. On 3 November 1481 Kennedy was one of 4 masters of arts elected as examiners. Career Kennedy acted as deputy of his nephew John, 2nd lord Kennedy, in his hereditary office of bailie of Carrick in 1492 (Acta Dom. Concilii, 26 Feb. 1492). His "commissar," according to Dunbar's Flyting, was "Quentyn" (more probably identical with Quintin Schaw, a poet, than with Quintin Kennedy, abbot of Crosraguel). About 1494 a son of Gilbert, lord Kennedy, was provost of Maybole in Ayrshire, a collegiate church founded by his ancestor, Sir John Kennedy of Dunure, and it is not unlikely that this was the poet, who appears from the character of some of his poems to have been in holy orders. His name does not appear either in the Treasurer's Accounts or in the Exchequer Rolls, in which it would have been natural to find him enjoying a salary like so many of his poet contemporaries. Kennedy and Dunbar William Dunbar was the rival of Kennedy in the Flyting, usually printed with Dunbar's poems, although half consists of the taunts levelled against Dunbar by Kennedy and by "Quentyn," "his commissar.’ In this poem, which is the chief authority for Kennedy's biography, Dunbar states that Kennedy acquired : A laithly luge that wes the lipper mennis, which probably refers to his purchase, on 8 December 1504, of Glentigh in Ayrshire, where there had been a leper hospital. Kennedy and his kin were stauncher adherents of the old doctrines than Dunbar, and in several passages in the Flyting he taunts Dunbar with leaning to lollardy. Elsewhere Dunbar implies that Kennedy took part in a treasonable enterprise against the king at Paisley (probably referring to the rising against James IV in 1489); was "air to Hillhouse," Sir John Sandilands, the master of artillery under James IV; played the beggar in a "wachemans weed" in Galloway (perhaps in allusion to an episode in his life when he had been obliged to hide to escape a charge of treason); and had for his wife or mistress "a soutars wife." In Dunbar's eyes Kennedy was a half-barbarous Celt, who always wore highland dress, spoke the Gaelic dialect, and resembled a leper on account of his lean neck, shrivelled throat, and dry yellow skin. From one of Dunbar's remarks it appears that Kennedy, like Dunbar and other of his countrymen, had visited Denmark. Assuming the Flyting to have been written in 1504, as the allusion to Glentigh makes probable, the subsequent reference in Dunbar's Lament for the Makaris, written before 1508, to : Good Maister Walter Kennedy, : In poynt of dede lies verraly, gives the probable date of his death, and proves that there was no real bitterness in Dunbar's railing.Irving, Scotish Poetry (edited by J.A. Carlyle), 253-254). Writing References by other poets show that Kennedy was held in high esteem by his contemporaries. Gavin Douglas, in the Palace of Honour, written in 1501, styles him "greit Kennedie as yet undeid;" and Sir David Lindsay notes his ornate language. Most of his poetry, like the 1st part of the Flyting, is, however, undoubtedly lost, and it would be perhaps safer to trust the verdict of contemporaries than of posterity as to its merits. Only 6 works by Walter Kennedy are extant, including his contribution to the Flyting, but taken together these amount to a not insignificant 2443 lines of verse. Kennedy's longest poem is The Passioun of Crist, a courtly and successful depiction of the story of Christ from the nativity to the ascension, and a significant yet neglected work altogether different in form, register and subject from the Flyting, his next longest work.Meier, 2008, xv. Kennedy's poems, besides his parts of the ‘Flyting,’ are: 1. ‘The Praise of Age’ (in Bannatyne and Maitland MSS.) 2. ‘Ane Agit Manis Invective against Mouth Thankless,’ a palinode for one of his amours, possibly that with the soutar's wife (in Bannatyne and Maitland MSS.) 3. ‘Ane ballat in praise of our Lady’ (Asloane MS.) 4. ‘Pious Counsale’ (Bannatyne and Maitland MSS.) 5. ‘The Passion of Christ,’ a long poem (Howard MS.), from which extracts have been printed, together with all his other known works, by Laing in his edition of Dunbar. The Flyting was printed, with other Scottish poems, by Chepman & Myllar in 1508, and was reprinted in 1828. Recognition 20th-century poet William Neill, interested in Kennedy's South Ayrshire roots and his possible role as a Gaelic speaker in the Scottish court, has incorporated tributes to the makar into his own writing. One example is the Gaelic poem Chuma Bhaltair Cinneide (In Memory of Walter Kennedy), which opens: Publications *''Poems'' (edited by Nicole Meier). Scottish Text Society, 2009.The Poems of Walter Kennedy (Scottish Text Society Fifth Series), Amazon.com, Web, Feb. 2, 2018. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 2, 2018. Notes External links ;Poems *Walter Kennedy at PoemHunter (17 poems) ;About *Walter Kennedy in the Encyclopædia Britannica * Kennedy, Walter Category:1450s births Category:1510s deaths Category:Scots Makars Category:Scottish poets Category:Scottish Gaelic poets Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Scottish Gaelic-speaking people Category:Court of James IV of Scotland Category:16th-century Scottish writers Category:16th-century poets Category:Middle Scots poets Category:Poets